Musical glasses are a fun way to combine art, math, music and science.

Spark your thinking!

1. Set up your STEAM mini spark recording page: #31: Make Water Glass Music

2. Gather the materials you need. Take a picture and add it to your recording page.

8 identical water glasses

water

a set of measuring cups

food coloring (optional)

1 plastic spoon

1 sheet of paper

Tape

pen/pencil

3. As you create this experiment. Take pictures of all of your steps.

Steps

1. Use a measuring cup to fill each of the glasses with the correct amount of water. Use the image below as a guide.
2. For fun, you can add a drop of food coloring to your glasses or two drops to make green, orange, or purple.

3.  Label your glasses.  Use the image below as a guide.

4. With a plastic spoon, gently tap each glass and listen for the sound it makes.

5. Notice which glass makes a lower sound and a higher sound.

6. Try playing these simple songs or create your own. Take a video of a song.

4.  The science of sound is all about vibrations. When you hit the glass with the spoon, the glass vibrates, and it’s these vibrations that ultimately make the sound. You discovered that tapping an empty glass produced a higher-pitched sound than tapping a bottle full of water did. Adding water to the bottle dampens the vibrations created by striking the glass with a spoon. The less water in the bottle, the faster the glass vibrates and the higher the pitch. The more water you add to the bottle, the slower the glass vibrates, creating a lower pitch.

5. On your recording page, write about what you learned from this mini spark.

6. Share your STEAM mini spark recording page and your video with your teacher/EY coordinator

Activity adapted from Musical Water Glasses at https://www.connectionsacademy.com/resources/instructographics/music-water-glasses and https://www.stevespanglerscience.com/lab/experiments/pop-bottle-sounds/